Sauber's title sponsor 'Kick' takes a savage jibe at Ferrari as Nico Hulkenberg beats both Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc in Australia
Sauber F1 team's title sponsor Kick took a savage jibe at Ferrari after Nico Hulkenberg finished ahead of both Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc in the season-opening Australian Grand Prix. The streaming service playfully took a dig at the Italian side, calling themselves superior.
Both Leclerc and Hamilton were already running in the lower-end of the top-10, but then suddenly found themselves in the top-two after the rest of the grid pitted to put on the intermediate tires amid a rain shower during the final stages of the race.
The rain was too hard for them to carry on on slick tires though, and the Ferrari pair had to come into the pits eventually. After this moment, they struggled to make any further impressions, as Leclerc finished 8th and Hamilton ended up 10th.
Nico Hulkenberg on the other hand, finished his first race for Sauber in an impressive seventh place, amid a chaotic opening race around Albert Park, that rolled the years back. Sauber's title sponsors, Kick, took this oppurtunity to poke fun at Ferrari, by pointing out how their driver finished ahead of the legendary Italian side. They took to X and made a joke about the situation.
"Kick > Ferrari"
Hulkenberg helped the Swiss team outscore their entire points tally from 2024, in the first round of 2025 already. Being the slowest car on the grid last season, Sauber only managed to bag 4 points thoughout the whole year. Their new German drivers' brilliant performance means they have already scored 6 points.
Sauber's other new driver, Gabriel Bortoleto, actually out-qualified his veteran teammate, finishing 15th in his first ever qualifying session in F1. But the rookie found it difficult to keep his car on track amid the heavy rain, and ended up running off at turn 13, and crashing with the safery barriers.
Lewis Hamilton reflects on his first outing with Ferrari in Australia
Lewis Hamilton shared that he was grateful to finish his first race with Ferrari and even grab a point. But the Briton explained that he ultimately expected more from his debut in the Scarlet Red car.
Speaking to the media after the race, Hamilton explained how he was grateful to finish his first race with his new team in the points but also disappointed with the eventual result.
"I’m grateful to finish, at least I got one point. Overall, not what I was hoping for, but there was so much to get accustomed to, to get used to, with all the switch settings and changes that they [the team] were throwing at you." [via Formula1.com]
Speaking about the performance of the SF-25, he explained:
"Then just the balance of the car, It was really very, very tricky – really, really tricky today. I think we can improve that in the next race, hopefully, and get the car in a sweeter spot. I think there’s a lot more potential in the car than what we were able to extract today.”
Ferrari will be hoping to improve on their car performance and balance for the next race in China, which is as early as next week. Teams will get even less time to get their cars in the right spot in Shanghai, as the second race weekend of the 2025 season is the year's first Sprint Weekend.